Board of Education Approves New Standards
Subscriber Benefit
As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowThe Indiana State Board of Education has approved new education standards. The guidelines for math and language arts were proposed by the Indiana Department of Education and the Center for Education and Career Innovation to replace Common Core.
April 28, 2014
News Release
(Indianapolis) The Indiana State Board of Education today adopted new academic standards for Math and English/Language Arts by a vote of 10-1. The adoption followed a months-long process that began last fall and included the inputs from Indiana educators, higher education faculty, content experts and community members. These individuals invested more than 6,000 hours towards the development of new college and career ready standards. Evaluation teams crafted draft standards informed by more than 2,000 public comments and input from independent evaluators. The work of the evaluation teams was then vetted, refined and ultimately endorsed by the College and Career Ready Panel. The Board expressed confidence in the rigor and strength of these standards and looks forward to turning its attention to a new state assessment aligned with the new Indiana college and career ready standards.
Several State Board of Education members issued statements regarding the new standards, as attached below.
Dr. David Freitas: 2nd District
“Today, we adopted rigorous career and college ready standards that were developed through a transparent and comprehensive standards development process. These standards will empower Indiana teachers to develop targeted lesson plans that will enable Indiana’s students to thrive and prosper in our global economy.
“Indiana’s standards set high expectations of what Hoosier students need to know and be able to do in each grade. They are built on a solid foundation of research-based best practices. They thwart unnecessary and unwanted intrusion in our schools by the Federal government. And they rightly cede curriculum authority to local school leaders and communities in selecting their own instructional materials. They are clearly relevant 21st century standards for 21st century learners.”
Cari Whicker: 3rd District
“The process followed to create these standards was the most collaborative Indiana has ever seen. I appreciate everyone's support and input – from Governor Pence, the Superintendent, the Board, the DOE, hundreds of educators, and thousands of concerned parents and citizens. Never have so many Hoosiers worked to create the best standards possible for Hoosier children.
“While the process itself included many people, as an educator, I appreciate that the process was done in a timely manner. This allows my colleagues across the state time to study the standards and create amazing lessons for our kids.”
Sarah O’Brien: 4th District
“As an Indiana educator and a parent of school-age children, I am proud to support the Indiana College and Career Ready Standards. I would like to publicly thank the Evaluation Teams and the College and Career Readiness Panel for their countless hours analyzing and preparing academic indicators that are rigorous, linear, and concise to best meet the needs of all Hoosier learners. These new Indiana standards started with the best parts of Common Core and our own previous Indiana Standards, and grew with updates and additions incorporating current requirements of our students to create a unique set of Hoosier-owned, exemplar standards designed to meet the challenges of everyday life in the twenty-first century. On an unparalleled level, the process of academic standard development utilized local experts in the field, Indiana educators who live and breathe these standards as they work tirelessly to prepare their students for lifelong success and achievement. The process was transparent and fair and allowed for input on a variety of levels from across the state. The new alignment allows Indiana educators to fully understand grade level expectations while also fully comprehending their students’ former experiences and future endeavors.
After reviewing the specific standards, the public comment, written and oral testimony, and reviews of experts both nationally and within the state of Indiana, I am confident that we have a strong foundation through which our schools will now be enabled to develop curricular opportunities best supporting all Hoosier students in their chosen college or career pathway. I look forward to continuing the conversation with the Indiana Department of Education as we now advance our efforts towards implementation guidance for schools as well as a common sense approach to assessment.”
Andrea Neal: 5th District
“The standards we adopted today do a disservice to Indiana children. Leading mathematicians have described the math standards as poorly written, disorganized, and erroneous. The language arts standards are less rigorous than both the common core and our previous 2006 English/language arts standards. They will diminish the role of literature in the English classroom, and it is the reading of good literature that will turn our children into critical thinkers and critical writers.”
Dr. Brad Oliver: 6th District
“Today I voted to adopt Indiana College and Career Ready Standards that establish essential knowledge and skills in Math and English/Language Arts at every grade level. These standards reflect the collective expertise of Hoosier educators, University subject matter experts, and business leaders who are best qualified to determine the required knowledge and skills Indiana high school graduates need to obtain a postsecondary education without requiring costly remediation or to secure a sustainable career
“Over the last several months, I have closely followed the work of Technical Review Teams and the College and Career Ready evaluation panels who analyzed current and previous Indiana academic standards, who considered the academic standards of other states, who evaluated the collective input of invited external reviewers, and who considered the public testimony and comments of thousands Hoosier educators and citizens. Today’s standards reflect the collective wisdom of our State’s finest educational experts, whose leadership and dedication to our children’s well-being, has already resulted in the second largest national achievement gains in the areas of Math and Reading.
“In the weeks and months ahead, it is critical that parents and constituents work collaboratively with local school leaders to insure that curriculum and instruction is closely aligned to these new standards, reflective of research-based best practices, and representative of the values and priorities of local communities. Moreover, the State Board of Education must now work to provide a valid and reliable statewide assessment, also aligned to new college and career ready standards, and capable of providing parents and educational leaders with meaningful information about student achievement, as well as, teacher and school effectiveness.
“Today is a proud moment for the state of Indiana. Indiana has reasserted its right to govern education through the adoption of its own college and career ready standards. We have modeled a process for standards adoption that insures our students have access to knowledge and skills that will allow our state to remain academically and economically competitive at the national and international level, while insuring that curriculum and instructional decisions remain with our parents, business, community, and school leaders at the local level.”
Dan Elsener: 7th District
“I am thankful for the generous and passionate efforts of so many Hoosier parents, educators, community leaders, and my colleagues on the SBOE invested in fulfilling our Governor's request that we create uncommonly high academic standards for the children of Indiana. It was inevitable that such a thorough and robust process of developing these standard